Armor & Mobility

May/ June 2017

Military magazines in the United States and Canada, covering Armor and Mobility, focuses on tactical vehicles, C4ISR, Special Operations Forces, latest soldier equipment, shelters, and key DoD programs

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operations units in one of our line companies. Additionally, we have
increased our capacity and capability to build and enhance partner
aviation forces around the world. Our trainers are uniquely suited
and situated to take advantage of the special operations indigenous
approach to enhance the rotary wing capability of our many allies and
partners. Where and when we can make those partners more capable
it reduces the support burden on Army Aviation across the spectrum
– that's good for all of us in the current high OPTEMPO environment.
While we take pride in employing the most advanced helicopters and
unmanned aerial systems in the world, the focus now and always is –
people.
A&M: How is ARSOAC focusing on opportunities to advance capabilities
fielding in terms of partnering in a Joint, Multi-Domain environment?
BG Evans: Special Operations Forces (SOF) are inherently joint and
multi-domain in their approach. The ARSOAC possesses organic
materiel development and systems integration capability that is unique
in Army Aviation. Our ability to leverage conventional force and special
operations funding coupled with unique acquisition authorities allows
us to bring capability to bear faster and with greater precision than
conventional forces. We still rely heavily on the greater Army and
Army Aviation programming community for advancing our capability
requirements, but we endeavor to "give back" our gains when we fill
gaps with new technology. Our close ties and habitual relationships
with other members of the joint special operations force enable us to
leverage years of experience in traditionally "non-Army" domains like
Maritime with our Navy and Marine SOF partners, and Space and Air
with our Air Force SOF partners. We are practiced at synchronizing
our operations in those domains and now work increasingly to include
Cyber through initiatives such as Airborne Mission Networking and
expeditionary reachback maintenance. Critical to our capability growth
is the necessity to remain nested with the Army Operating Concept,
emerging Army Multi-Domain battle doctrine and US Special Operations
Command (USSOCOM) 2035 Capstone documents while promoting and
providing aviation support across the Joint force through the use of the
four US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) strategic value
propositions: 1) the indigenous approach, 2) precision targeting, 3)
developing understanding and wielding influence, and 4) crisis response.
A&M: Discuss any Joint Interoperability across Special Operations
Command in both manned and unmanned systems and how ARSOAC
may be cooperating with them.
BG Evans: USASOC Strategy 2035 and our own ARSOA 2035 documents
describe how the force is moving forward to obtain next generation
Pilots from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) land AH-6 Littlebirds
during a training exercise. Pilots often team up with ground forces to conduct more
realistic training in different environments. (U.S. Army photo)
LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVE
www.tacticaldefensemedia.com 8 | Armor & Mobility | May/June 2017